CONAL KEANEY’S motorcycle accident yesterday morning has cast a cloud over Dublin’s attempts to reach an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 1948. Keaney sustained a fractured ankle and tore his cruciate knee ligament when hit by a van. As a result, Anthony Daly will not announce a team until tomorrow.

This is it for Dublin. The league success will lose its lustre if they cannot beat the Division Two champions. Many of their Leinster final excuses are valid. They were always going to struggle without Ryan O’Dwyer’s ball-winning ability at half forward while the rejigging of the defence after Tomás Brady’s knee injury failed to contain the Shefflin-Power-Larkin onslaught.

AN INVESTIGATION into fraudulent welfare claims led to the arrest of five people in north and west Dublin yesterday.

Three men and two women were arrested after detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and inspectors from the Department of Social Protection searched houses yesterday morning. A large number of documents were seized.

A man in his 30s and a woman in her 40s who appeared in court charged in relation to fraudulent welfare claims were released on bail to reappear before Dublin District Court next week.

Epicor SoftwarebizWatch Epicor Software Latest from The Business Journals People on the moveJames Norwood named Kana marketing chiefCirrus Logic added to S&P small-cap index Follow this company will move its headquarters from Livermore to Dublin, along with about 360 jobs, the Contra Costa Times reports.

The company, a maker of enterprise planning software with about $800 million in revenue, plans to make the move in January, exiting Livermore completely.

Epicor has signed a lease for 74,000 square feet in Dublin Corporate Center, a step up from the 55,000 square feet it currently occupies in Livermore, the report says.

Gardaí in Dublin are questioning a man in connection with a serious assault on Grafton Street in the city centre last month.

A man in his 20s received serious head injuries when he was attacked at around 3am on Sunday, May 29.

Last night, investigating gardaí arrested a man in his 20s.

He is being questioned at Pearse Street garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Eoghan O’Gara has won a surprise recall to the Dublin starting line-up for Sunday’s Leinster football semi-final against Kildare. O’Gara impressed off the bench against Laois in the last round but manager Pat Gilroy was not expected to tinker with his front line of Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard and Alan Brogan.

Instead, Kevin McMenamon was dropped from the attack when Gilroy named his team this morning with Alan Brogan moving out to the half forward line and O’Gara handed the number 14 jersey.

Dublin and Galway come face to face on Saturday evening in what will be only their third ever meeting in the Championship.

It will be the first time they have met since Galway came into the Leinster fray last year, and Dublin will be hoping the success they have had against the Tribesmen in the past will be replicated at O’Connor Park.

The Dubs got the better of the Tribesmen in the 1941 All-Ireland semi-final, and prior to that had come out on top in the 1924 decider.

Defenders Maurice O’Brien and Oisin Gough will start for Dublin in tomorrow’s Leinster SHC quarter-final against Offaly at Croke Park (throw-in 2pm).

First choice full-back Tomas Brady, who is nursing a knee injury, and centre-back Joey Boland (shoulder) have been ruled out for the Dubs’ Championship opener.

O’Brien and Gough come in as their indirect replacements, with Peter Kelly moving to full-back and team captain John McCaffrey switching across from right half-back to centre-back.

see US President Barack Obama in person in Dublin on next week’s whistlestop tour.

Tens of thousands of Irish people will have the opportunity of a lifetime to catch a glimpse of the US president in a public rally in the city centre.

The event, planned for College Green on Monday afternoon, is free and unticketed, the Government has confirmed.

However, anyone who wishes to attend will have to pass through metal scanners, security checks and the president will speak from behind a plexiglass screen.

Starting tomorrow Dublin is going into lockdown as the city prepares for the visits of Queen Elizabeth II followed by President Obama over the next ten days. While the heightened security might be necessary, many Dublin residents (and tourists too, I imagine) are wondering if it’s worth all the aggravation they have to endure.

Initially the reports of extra security were just shrugged off. It was more a smile than a grimce when we were informed that the gardaí (police) would be examining, and then sealing, all the manholes near where the Queen and President were scheduled to be in order to ensure that nothing (or no one) explosive could erupt from below. It was also reported that end-of-year exams at Trinity College were postponed for next week, but that was either just a rumor or the college changed its call. Students can get access to the college and exams are going ahead.

NEW STATISTICS COMPILED by the Central Statistics Office show that residential property prices in Ireland have dived by almost 40 per cent in just four years.

The stats showed that property in Dublin had borne the brunt of the property market meltdown, with residential prices down by almost half – 47 per cent – in the capital since the market there peaked in February 2007.